Flyers Edge North Stars Galley's First Goal Proves To Be The Game-winner

January 31, 1992|by GARY R. BLOCKUS, The Morning Call

Garry Galley scored his first goal as a Flyer -- the game-winner -- with 5:58 left in the game as Philadelphia edged the Minnesota North Stars 5-3 last night.

The victory gave the Flyers a 3-0 sweep of the season series with the North Stars and provided the Flyers with their second consecutive victory.

Mark Howe scored a pair of goals for the Flyers while Dale Kushner and Keith Acton each scored one.

Acton's goal into an empty net with 55 seconds left iced the National Hockey League victory.

Flyer goalie Ron Hextall improved to 7-12-4 on the season while the Flyers improved to 16-24-9.

Some old faces came back to the Spectrum last night to relive some familiar moments as former Flyers Brian Propp and Derrick Smith donned North Stars uniforms.

Minnesota G.M. Bobby Clarke was not in town with the team, however.

Mike Modano tied the game at 3-3 with 8:19 left in regulation with the North Stars' third power play goal of the night.

Modano's goal came following a two-line offsides diagonal pass from Brian Bellows to Dave Gagner that had the 16,869 fans booing.

Gagner skated into the slot, drew Hextall and fed to Modano on the outlet for an open-netter.

Some very uneven play permeated the opening period, uneven in terms of men on ice.

Both teams had trouble going to regular lines after nine separate penalties were called by referee Richard Trottier.

Philly coach Bill Dineen went with a goon line for the opening faceoff and the Flyers were immediately on their heels.

Keith Acton tried to square off with Marc Bureau after both lined up for the opening puck drop. After that didn't pan out, Tony Horacek dropped his gloves to challenge Minnesota's Steve Churla.

Churla didn't drop his though, and Horacek was called for a two -minute roughing penalty to begin the penalty cavalcade five seconds into the game.

Minnesota scored with one second left on a two-man power play when Neal Broten's blast from the left circle hit Hextall, then dribbled over the goal line in agonizing slow motion. The goal was awarded to Dave Gagner.

The Flyers blew a 1:31 two-man advantage of their own, but managed to knot the game on their third power play of the period, their first power-play goal in 12 chances against the North Stars this season.

Howe simply drifted into the lower left side of the slot and flicked a crossing pass from Rod Brind'Amour past the short side of through goalie Darcy Wakaluk.

The longest stretch of even strength play in the period ran 2:59, after which the North Stars made it 2-1 on another power play with 3:51 left.

The goal by Ulf Dahlen drew a chorus of boos after Mike Craig was offsides on the play, then leveled Howe with a crosscheck to clear the path for Mike Modano, who carried the puck into the offensive zone.

Howe tied the game with the Flyers on their second two-man advantage of the period with 1:35 left.

This time, his wrist shot beat Wakaluk to the short side through a screen run by Kevin Dineen.

Dale Kushner put the Flyers ahead 3-2 9:48 into the middle period with the game's first even -strength goal.

Kushner was called up from Hershey to replace tough guy Dave Brown, who bruised a shoulder in the win over Washington on Tuesday.

Kushner's goal came from a feed into the slot by Tony Horacek. Kushner fought off a crunching check into the left corner by Enrico Ciccone to get to the slot on time.

Just before the ensuing faceoff, the Flyers' Keith Acton and Horacek and the North Stars' Basil McRae and Churla were all given 10 minute misconducts for a small-scale fight.

Trottier seemed to develop tendinitis in his right shoulder during the period. Other than the misconducts, he called just four penalties as play went a whopping 7:08 consecutively at even strength.